“Shut up!” Sano yelled, incensed because Hoshina spoke the same criticism that his conscience was whispering to him.

“You always insist on knowing the truth, but the truth hurts sometimes, doesn’t it?” Hoshina taunted.

“I’ll execute you myself!” Sano reached for his sword, which Yanagisawa’s guards had confiscated.

“You wouldn’t even if you could,” Hoshina said, more reckless as he perceived that he’d gained the upper hand. “You won’t abet my death even though you love your wife and hate me. We both know you have to keep your promise.”

Sano experienced a sensation of careening down a steep hill as he realized that Hoshina was right. Whatever his reluctance, he must concede. The samurai code of honor that he lived to serve forbade reneging on his word or giving in to a demand from a criminal. Lifelong adherence to Bushido had destined him to perform the favor Hoshina wanted. And he began to perceive other, even more important reasons why he must. Stricken by defeat, he glared at Hoshina.

The mockery in Hoshina’s smile turned to triumph. Yanagisawa betrayed no emotion. Sano understood that his own honor had always been their strongest weapon against him. Even as his heart rebelled, his samurai spirit quelled its protests. The onus settling upon him bowed his head.

“We’ll go to the shogun now,” Yanagisawa said.

He took the ransom letter from Sano, clearly bent on doing just what he’d said he would-letting matters take their course. Sano’s mind raced with frenetic thoughts. How could he save Hoshina, and Reiko besides?

13

The shogun sat on the dais in the palace audience chamber, holding the ransom letter in his spindly hands. His head moved, his lips formed inaudible words, and concentration puckered his face while he read the columns of characters. Utter quiet immersed the room.

Sano, kneeling below the dais at Tokugawa Tsunayoshi’s left, felt his heartbeat accelerate and his stomach tighten behind his stoic countenance. As he mentally rehearsed what he would say, he eyed Police Commissioner Hoshina, who knelt near him.

Hoshina had donned a silk kimono, trousers, and surcoat in shades of green before coming to the palace. His sweat had already spread damp patches across the garments. Unable to sit still, he kept looking from the shogun to Sano, from the shogun’s guards stationed along the walls to Sano’s detectives kneeling at the back of the room, and finally to Yanagisawa.

The chamberlain sat at the shogun’s right, his aloof demeanor like a shield between him and everyone else. Sano marveled at Yanagisawa’s control, for he himself couldn’t have remained so calm while depending on his enemy to save his beloved.

“What is this peculiar poem about a, ahh, drowned woman and the dragon king?” the shogun said, baffled. “And what does it have to do with, ahh, the kidnapping?”

No one answered. Everyone waited while he read the ransom demand. “Ahh!” Surprise raised Tokugawa Tsunayoshi’s eyebrows; then comprehension illuminated his face. Looking up from the letter, he exclaimed, “Now I can rescue my mother!”

He turned to Hoshina. “You have, ahh, served me well, and it is a pity that I must, ahh, sacrifice you. But you shall have the, ahh, ultimate honor of dying in the line of duty.”

Hoshina gulped; his Adam’s apple jerked: All his verbal prowess had deserted him. Sano had expected Tokugawa Tsunayoshi would concede to the kidnapper’s demands, but he was amazed that the shogun spoke with such callous disregard for Hoshina, though of course he owed his retainers nothing. Sano realized that appeals to the shogun’s compassion wouldn’t save Hoshina.

The shogun signaled to his guards. “Take Hoshina-san to the execution ground at once. After he’s, ahh, dead, place his corpse and severed head on a frame at the Nihonbashi Bridge, with a sign that, ahh, proclaims him to be a murderer.”

Four guards advanced toward Hoshina, who stared at Sano, willing him to keep his promise. Yanagisawa watched the scene with cool detachment. Now was Sano’s last chance to go back on his word, do nothing, and let Hoshina die; yet honor and wisdom overpowered selfish impulse.

“Your Excellency, please wait,” Sano said in a voice fraught with his conflicting emotions.

Everyone’s attention shifted to Sano. The shogun regarded him in surprise. “Wait for what?” Tokugawa Tsunayoshi said. “The sooner I, ahh, execute Police Commissioner Hoshina, the sooner the, ahh, kidnappers will return my mother to me.”

“Not necessarily, Your Excellency,” said Sano.

The guards seized Hoshina and yanked him to his feet. He resisted, his muscles straining, his features set in a grimace of terror. The shogun planted his fists on his hips and leaned toward Sano.

“How dare you interfere?” Tokugawa Tsunayoshi demanded. “Are you so, ahh, disloyal to me that you would, ahh, protect Hoshina-san at my mother’s expense?” Ire reddened his cheeks. “Perhaps you wish to, ahh, join him at the execution ground.”

Although fear threatened to choke Sano, he must continue his risky course, for Reiko’s sake as well as Hoshina’s. “My only wish is to serve you, Your Excellency,” he said. “And I must respectfully advise you that killing Hoshina-san won’t guarantee the honorable Lady Keisho-in’s safety.”

The shogun tilted his head, looked askance at Sano, but his lack of confidence in his own decisions gave him hesitation. He raised a hand and stopped the guards from dragging Hoshina away. “What are you, ahh, talking about?”

Sano felt the force of Hoshina’s hope trained on him. He said, “It’s not in the kidnappers’ interest to ever free Lady Keisho-in. She must have seen their faces, so she can identify them. They know that if they let her go alive, she’ll help you hunt them down. As soon as they know Hoshina is dead, they’ll kill her and the other hostages.”

This possibility enabled Sano to argue with conviction against obeying the kidnappers. Now the shogun’s jaw dropped. “But this says my mother will be released if I, ahh, execute Hoshina-san,” Tokugawa Tsunayoshi said, holding up the letter.

“A promise from a criminal is worthless,” Sano said. “Someone evil enough to kidnap the honorable Lady Keisho-in and murder her entourage will have no scruples about reneging on Your Excellency as soon as you’ve given him what he wants.”

Tokugawa Tsunayoshi pounded the dais in outrage that anyone would treat him thus. “Disgraceful!” Immediately, his face crumpled. He wailed, “But the, ahh, kidnapper will kill my mother if I don’t execute Hoshina-san.”

The kidnapper might indeed murder all the women unless he got his way, Sano knew; whatever they did, they could lose.

The shogun underwent another sudden mood change to suspicion. “You’re trying to, ahh, confuse me,” he told Sano, then turned on Chamberlain Yanagisawa. “I begin to think there is a, ahh, plot to make me spare Hoshina-san and doom my mother.”

Yanagisawa involuntarily stiffened with the alarm that Sano also experienced. The atmosphere in the room grew heavy with menace. Outside, beyond the open doors, the sun had risen above the buildings surrounding the garden, but the palace’s deep eaves shadowed the audience chamber.

“There’s no plot that involves me, Your Excellency,” said Yanagisawa, and his voice sounded brittle. “I haven’t lifted a finger to prevent Hoshina-san’s execution.”

“But you’ve, ahh, sat by and let Sano-san argue against it.” The shogun lunged to his feet so awkwardly that he almost fell on Yanagisawa, who drew back in consternation. “Do you think I don’t know that Hoshina-san is your lover? Do you think I’m so stupid that I, ahh, wouldn’t guess that you want to save him?” Eyes narrowed by pique, the shogun loomed over Yanagisawa. “You, whom I’ve loved and trusted, have, ahh, conspired with Sano-san to deceive me. Your pact is treason of the most, ahh, heinous kind, and you shall be punished.”